Even if it is red, Mike is a good guy. And what’s more, he writes really fun books. The kind of books where you spend your entire family vacation hiding in the closet so those people will just leave you alone to read.

The first book of his that I read was Zeus is Dead. I recommend it. It is truly hilarious. He’s also the author of the New Aeneid Cycle – a scifi series with all sorts of awesome technology and lots of intrigue and uh…coverty-ness. I read the first two books and have been eagerly awaiting the third one…

…UNTIL NOW.

I am happy to report that the third book is finally done! And it’s coming out soon! And even more exclamation points because I got a sneak preview of the cover!!11!!eleventy!!

Wanna see?

HOLY CRAP THAT’S A DRAGON.

Here’s the blurb:

A Dragon at the Gate
(coming August 17, 2016)

Michael Flynn has lost time. An operative in the worldwide conspiracy known as the Agents of Aeneas, the last thing he remembers is the struggle to retake Paragon—the derelict alien spacecraft found crashed on the Moon. Yet that was three months ago. Now, as he wakes in a hospital back in the high-tech, urban strife of Northgate, his struggle begins anew.
The Agents of Aeneas have vanished.
His friends are either missing, in danger, or altered. Hired killers shadow his every move. And Jade, the mysterious, cyber-enhanced woman watching over him, will give no answers. Thrust into a blind search for the truth, Michael needs allies. Yet whom can he trust when once loyal friends may have turned against him?
Meanwhile, an intelligence thought trapped within Paragon has escaped to Northgate. Driven to fulfill the goals of the mysterious “Planners,” it, too, seeks allies. When it finds them, it will transform the face of Northgate, the world, and the entire human race.
The year 2051 draws to a close, and nothing will be the same.

Following A Shadow in the Flames and A Memory the Black, A Dragon at the Gate is the third and final book in Michael G. Munz’s cyberpunk series The New Aeneid Cycle: In the high-tech urban violence of the mid-21st century, humanity seems destined to destroy itself. Now those who seek to save it may have just found the means.

For more news about A Dragon at the Gate, and all of Michael G. Munz’s writing, visit MichaelGMunz.com, follow him on Twitter, or subscribe to his newsletter.

Genre is a tricky thing. There are widely known and accepted genres like Westerns! and Romance. There are even widely known subgenres like Western Romance! And that’s all well and good for people that write in those genres.

I don’t. I write in some weird hybrid genre that I have never successfully been able to define. The closest I’ve ever come to describing it is “Humrous SciFi with a cat in it.” Even though the science is more pseudo-science and there’s little fantasy save for the fact that one of the main characters is a 32 pound (mostly) Main Coon cat named Toesy. But he delights me to no end so I’m sticking with him for meow now.

I highly doubt my consciousness had any executive control over genre when I sat down to write my first book. I remember choosing to set it in Seattle (because that’s where I know) and that’s about where all my thoughtful input ended. Everything else stemmed from conversations I had in my head. Because that’s where the writing process happens for me.

I talk to everything. That may or may not surprise you, depending on how much time you and I have spent in respective company but it’s true all the same. Bugs, trees, myself, the dog, I have a thousand conversations a day. So when I’m writing a scene and a cat wanders into it and starts talking about murdering stuff, I don’t think that’s abnormal. Why would it be? I talk to my real cat all the time. Granted, our conversations are mostly about canned food or ear scratches but, we do talk.

This guy is much less subtle. Although he enjoys talking about cat food as well.

Talking with my characters lets me get into their heads. I see their desires and prejudices. I discover their motivations. I could put all that together myself by writing everything down and meticulously tracking all their character traits but honestly, a simple conversation will reveal more and requires much less work. I take notes, for sure, but it’s more like dictation than character building.

So no, I can say with confidence that I am definitely not in the driver’s seat here. I write what entertains me and the genre in which I write is based in what I find entertaining. Who knows what I’ll find entertaining? If a giant purple gorilla were to walk into my next scene and start singing the National Anthem in sign language, I’ll listen to his story.